Ontario’s Power Trip: Wind wastes water — and your dollars

"If OPG is producing less electricity, somebody else is producing more. That would be wind power, produced by scores of wind operators that have popped up around the province under the McGuinty government’s green-energy plan. In fact, OPG’s production decline of 3.9 Twh for 2011 was offset by 3.9 Twh of wind production.

If OPG had lost that market share in a competitive market, so much the better. It would have been a sign that it did not deserve to be producing electricity if it could not match the prices and supply levels of alternative sources of power. But that is not the case."

Wind’s cost to ratepayers is $135-million per Twh, or about $526-million for the 3.9 Twh wind delivered to Ontario in 2011. According to OPG’s annual statement, it sells nuclear power into the market at $55-million per Twh and unregulated hydro power from places like Niagara Falls for $32-million per Twh. The math is simple: Had OPG used its hydro facilities to deliver the same amount of power supplied by wind, the cost savings to Ontario’s ratepayers would have been the difference between the $32-million per TWh hydro price and the $135-million paid for wind. The 3.9 Twh of wind power that cost Ontario ratepayers $526-million last year could have been bought from OPG for $125-million — a potential saving of $400-million and delivered $125 million in additional revenue for OPG.